Without Yuna and Joannie, the descipline started this season as Ladiezzzzzzzzz. Mao was stuck in revamp and the field was filled mainly by evil twins. Then these beautiful young ladies showed up and surprised us at the GPF. And the Japanese Nationals presented to us World Champion calibre skates so many Men should envy. Mao is almost back in form and Yuna is coming back for the Worlds. Each will have to fight to earn a medal. Ladies competitions are now unpredictable because of the depth instead of inconsistencies. Worlds will be exciting again, even before the influx of all those marvelous Russian Babes.

I loooove history, so have had a blast fact checking, searching, being awed & wowed. For instance, I was blown away when I discovered Andree Joly also won 11 Pairs National Championships with her partner (later to become her husband) Pierre Brunet! Holy cow! Not only that they're also two-time Olympic Gold Medalists in Pairs (would've been 3time, but they refused to attend the 1936 Olympic Games because of Nazi Germany at the time). Btw, his bio says he medalled 10times at Nationals, but that's an error, most likely confused with his wife's 10. Oh yeah, they also went on to become renown coaches, having coached Carol Heiss & Scott Hamilton. (:^) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9e_Joly

I agree with you on all counts. And isn't it great that both Miki and Mao have such incredible perseverance? Both just keep going no matter what, even through defeat. People have given both of them up for finished, and it's like motes of dust in the sunlight to them. They just keep going, and they keep getting better. As you say of Mao, everything about her skating is gorgeous. You and I are both Michelle fans, so you know that it takes a lot for me to say that any element is better than Michelle's, but I think Mao's arm movements are more beautiful than post-Lori Nichol Michelle's. They are balletic in their placement, yet completely natural in their flow. I could watch Mao endlessly, and I hope she does achieve her wish of winning ten Japanese championships, so we get to enjoy her at her peak for many years to come.

Miki is someone I admire greatly, both as a skater and a person. If she wins Worlds, I might be disappointed on behalf of Mao and YuNa, but I won't mind it at all. It takes a lot to hold your own as a skater in Japan these days, and notice that Miki's been at or near the top for more than five years. Good for her!

Kanako I've only seen once, at Skate America. She's certainly worthy of taking her place in that exalted group. And she might even get better! Isn't it amazing? We are lucky viewers indeed.

I so agree... sigh, I could watch Mao for hours too. She is one of those skaters. I don't know why but I've never appreciated her as much as I did watching the videos of Japanese nationals, even though her programs were far from her best. I guess with her struggles this season I really missed her and she grabbed me from the moment she started moving. I thought, wow, now, THIS is a really special skater. I mean, I knew that already but it hit me in a different way this time.Thank goodness for her comeback and I hope she does well at worlds.

I also agree with whoever said that Lori was best with Michelle and that since she has become a bit predictable, if always lovely. I like Mao's program a lot though. Mostly, it's just such a relief from last year's LP. Perhaps the choreo could be more original - but Mao is one of those skaters that can make almost any choreo even better than it is.

Miki's victory is well-deserved. Good for her. I actually have yet to see her SP, though looking forward to it. I agree with MKF - she is definitely among those most improved and I really admire how much she has improved her stretch. Her camel spin has more stretch than Mao's, IMO. This is the best she has skated her LP all season and I enjoyed it. But she needs something - more joy in her skating, I think. I remember Irina Slutskaya - not an artistic skater but she has a sort of fire and pep that made up for it at times. Miki needs something like that. Not that she should emulate Irina's style but she should find someway to transmit her own joy in skating.

Miki and Morozov in K&K made me uncomfortable. I know they have a relationship, but still, his hand was a little close to a certain area...

I actually found it very disturbing, especially many years ago when Miki was barely an adult and Morozov was still wedded to Shae-Lynn Bourne. Gosh! I saw that in the K&K his hand kept crawling up to the lap of his new student. Right then, I knew that the newly wedded Shae-Lynn needed to find a divorce lawyer soon. Now that Miki has grown up, and I believe they are truly in love, but that child-molesting image is still daunting my brain whenever I see his crawling hand.

I agree with that. Miki deserved to win because of the mistakes and lower overall content of Mao (despite the triple axel). However Miki's PCS were absolutely ridiculous even under grossly inflated National scoring format, and she should have only barely won rather than won by 10 points. Mao's PCS should have been much higher.

I don't think Mao's content was actually much lower, though? All of her spins were better. Her spiral sequence was infinitely better. Her footwork sequence was better. If the difference in their base values was only 4.5 points, then Miki should have had an even smaller technical lead over Mao after factoring in GOE, because Mao's elements were better overall.

And then when you factor in PCS (where I believe Mao should have been something like 8 points ahead) it's a clear victory for her.

Looking at the protocols, Miki received +4.8 points in GOE for her non-jump elements. I find this to be laughable. Her spins and spiral should be receiving 0 GOE. The footwork sequence maybe deserved +1 GOE but that's it...which would come out to +.5 points, in comparison to the very deserved +5.8 points Mao received for her non-jump elements.

Wow I didnt realize Miki received that many points for GOE on her non jump elements. That is indeed absurd (and yes I did see her performance). It is clear the Japanese federation sees her as there #1 over Mao and trying to politik her with ridiculous scores. I guess they dont trust Mao totally again yet.

I guess I was being kind to Miki. She probably didnt deserve to win over Mao at all, all things considered.

I read somewhere Mao plans to do two 3A in the LP again. No wonder, after losing the LP by 10 points to Miki at nationals(I also find the margin to be quite absurd!). Maybe the 3A is her confidence booster, we all saw, after she lands the 3A the rest of the program goes well. I just hope it's not to much for her, I really want her on the podium at worlds

The judges obviously got a little GOE happy with Miki's elements. Miki's SP impressed me but I agree with everyone who said her LP was the same old thing. I was surprised that her PCS was a little higher than Mao's. I guess the judges rewarded her for her consistency this season.

I loooove history, so have had a blast fact checking, searching, being awed & wowed. For instance, I was blown away when I discovered Andree Joly also won 11 Pairs National Championships with her partner (later to become her husband) Pierre Brunet! Holy cow! Not only that they're also two-time Olympic Gold Medalists in Pairs (would've been 3time, but they refused to attend the 1936 Olympic Games because of Nazi Germany at the time). Btw, his bio says he medalled 10times at Nationals, but that's an error, most likely confused with his wife's 10. Oh yeah, they also went on to become renown coaches, having coached Carol Heiss & Scott Hamilton. (:^) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9e_Joly

***ps: a little bit of trivia ~ Alexei Yagudin (RUS), Wolfgang Schwarz (AUT), and Sarah Hughes (USA) are the only Olympic Champions in Singles F.S. history to have never won their National Championships. Close, but no cigar, all three always finishing behind their individual country's dominant leader at the time. C'est la vie.***

Funny how things work out. Since the 1968 Olympics Emmerich Danzer has had a full and admirable life both in and out of skating. Schwarz is in prison for kidnapping women in eastern Europe for prostitution.